This invention relates to a food drying device and more particularly to a machine for dehydrating food in a continuous mass production process.
In food processing, it is sometimes necessary to dry the food to a selected moisture state. This may be achieved by extracting the moisture fluid content from the food by subjecting it to heat and air. Food may also be dehydrated in the same manner. Dehydration is a desirable method of preserving food products such as vegetable. In dehydration, the fluid content of the food is removed by air drying it under heat such as by drying it naturally under the sun in open air. Such method is time consuming, the condition is not controllable, and the food is subject to contamination.
Food dehydrating devices have been developed for drying food products by artificial means in which the food is subjected to low heat and air stream applied slowly to it over an extended period of time. The main drawback of known dehydrating devices is that only a limited amount of food may be dehydrated over the extended period of time, and the degree of dehydration cannot be controlled or adjusted; thus such devices are not suitable for industrial use in which a large amount of food is to be dehydrated continuously or only selected amount of dehydration is required. Industrial dehydrators such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,371 issued to Jian-Ming Ni on Apr. 9, 2002, a large amount of food may be dehydrated in a continuous operation in a large rotatable drum in a fully controllable and monitored condition. However, due to the large size and the complex structure of the rotatable drum of such device, it requires a large factory facility and high cost to fabricate. Furthermore, the dehydration process would be interrupted when the rotatable drum is being cleaned and serviced, resulting in the reduction of efficiency of the dehydration process.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a food drying machine which is operable for extracting a selected amount of moisture content from food.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a food drying machine which is operable for dehydrating a large amount of food in a continuous mass production process.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a machine in which the component parts may be cleaned and serviced without interruption to the food processing operation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a food drying machine in which the drying process is fully monitored and the operating condition is fully monitored.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a food drying machine which is easy to operate.
The above and further objects, details and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.